Dwight Yoakam enters a tunnel. But does he come out the other side? That was the question on everyone’s mind in this week’s “Under the Dome.” As half the cast explored the caves unearthed under the school last week in search of Lyle the crazy barber, the others split up to deal with a dust storm that threatens to suffocate the town and an otherworldly egg hunt. Just another day in Chester’s Mill, I suppose. Let’s recap what happened in “In the Dark.”

Bromance, Interrupted: Newly minted sheriff Barbie arrives at the school to help Junior and Sam explore the tunnels, which were clearly designed by Michael Myers’ interior decorator. Happening upon Pauline’s sketchbook, eager beaver Junior trips an explosive, caving in the tunnel and leaving the unlikely, and potentially combustible, duo of Barbie and Sam to fend for themselves and venture further down the rabbit hole. Coming to a dead end at a cliff to a seemingly endless hole (“Journey to the Center of the Earth,” anyone?), the two begin to pass the time by revealing the skeletons in their closets: Barbie cops to taking more than few lives in his time, while Sam fesses up to recognizing Melanie, aka “the love of his life,” the day she popped out of the lake. Oh, and Lyle is the one who pushed her into the hole the night she was killed because the egg caused Pauline pain. Just when it appears a bromance is forming between the two, Barbie notices the scratch marks on Sam’s shoulder and realizes he is in the midst of Angie’s killer. Sam, apparently still in a sharing mood, willingly admits to the crime, claiming Pauline’s prophetic drawings demand that he kill The Four Hands to save the town. But realizing he’s stuck between Barbie and a bottomless hole – and fed up with being at the mercy of the dome – Sam chooses the bottomless hole, leaving the murderous plot to Barbie.

Booms Away: While Barbie and Sam begin and swiftly end their bromance, Julia and Rebecca are overcoming their own fair share of differences to find a way through the rubble. Rebecca tells Julia it was her father’s illness that led to her science-above-all-else mindset. Julia doles out forgiveness in true convenient fashion, so the pair can concoct an explosive from things they find in the high school science classroom (let’s not teach our kids too much, Miss Pine). Blasting their way through, Julia reunites with Barbie just after Sam takes his leap.

Alien Egg Hunt: Junior, escaping the cave in, sets out to round up the Four Hands so Lyle can’t pick them off one by one. Joe, having just had his “I love you” rebuffed by Norrie, is feeling a few emotions when Junior, Melanie and Norrie locate him. Coming together, they agree, to honor Angie, they must forge ahead and find the egg Julia dropped in the lake. After summoning the egg – simply by holding their hands over the water, no less – they return to Joe’s home (but it can’t be because his house was destroyed, right?) and touch the egg in unision. Cue more fantastical pink stars, which form the tower in Zenith, which Melanie knows as her hometown and Junior saw in his dream.

Dust Bowl: In yet another extraneous weather-from-hell scenario, a dust storm (caused by the acid rain killing the top soil, per Rebecca) threatens to clog the dome walls and suffocate the town. Big Jim, excluded from the tunnel adventures, takes the storm as an opportunity to undermine an absent Julia’s authority. After nearly letting an asthmatic Ben die to stir up some fear, Big Jim bans the increasingly small pool of townsfolk together to build the much-discussed windmill. Within a matter of seconds, naturally, the storm dissipates, and Big Jim’s power play regains him a few popularity points. Take that, Mother Nature.

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About This Blog

Hi! My name is Hunter Ingram and I’m the film/TV reporter for StarNews Media. I will be the primary blogger for WilmonFilm, but other staffers, including Community Engagement Editor Jeff Hidek and freelance reporter Brian Tucker, are likely to contribute from time to time.

With this blog, I aim to be Southeastern North Carolina’s go-to source for all things film and TV. Wilmington and its surrounding areas are rich with intriguing projects, from the big-budget blockbusters to the small-scale, high-impact independent films. I will post everything from breaking news to offbeat features that will cover every facet of the entertainment news emerging from the area. So bookmark this page and be on the lookout every day for new posts!

While we may be hard at work reporting on the stories we get, we also want your tips, reactions and ideas. Got a story idea that is itching to be heard? E-mail or call me! Want to say something about a post? Leave a comment.